


Nowhere

by quietcarnage



Category: Prisoners (2013), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Police, Falling In Love, Hurt Peter Parker, M/M, Meet-Cute, Near Death Experiences, Officer Parker - Freeform, Temporary Amnesia, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:21:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26190316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quietcarnage/pseuds/quietcarnage
Summary: Loki never thought he’d be in love. Especially not with a fresh faced rookie from New York, and certainly didn't expect to fall so hard. It feels too good to be true, and it certainly is, especially when those girls go missing. And then so does Peter.
Relationships: Detective Loki (Prisoners)/Peter Parker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37
Collections: are you bored yet Extended Universe





	Nowhere

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the extension of are you bored yet post-chapters. Definitely should read that fic first in order for this one to make sense. [Read the Prisoners chapter first](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23482192/chapters/56989210)

Sometimes it felt like his life was hitting a dead end. 

He was a damn detective working out of a small town in Pennsylvania, where nothing ever happened. All the excitement was in the bigger cities, but getting hired there and making enough money to pay rent, well, he’d have more luck winning the damn lottery. 

So Pennsylvania it was.

The newspaper in front of him screamed in all caps about the serial rapist from New York that had been eluding detectives for a month now that had just left the state. Scoffing, he tossed it on the bar in front of him and turned around in his stool to observe the rest of the night life.

He didn’t want to come off as cocky, but he’d solved every single case he had ever gotten. Every single one. He had a damn good track record for solving the unsolvable, it seemed like a waste to stay put in Nowhere, Pennsylvania.

In fact, if he were to shoot his shot on the case, just based on the bar’s rowdy patrons alone, he’d probably pick on the bigger, stockier man in the corner chatting up the barely legal kid with the fruitini in his hand. He had a similar build, and ethnicity to the man they were searching for in the papers, and he was displaying predatory behavior towards a younger man that matched his target demographic. In fact, they weren’t all too far off from New York, so it was wholly possible that the suspect could have fled, and...

Wait.

Loki snatched the newspaper up from the bar again, mumbling as he skimmed the details

“Left New York Sunday evening… Officer Parker in pursuit… heavyset white male in his late 40’s… picks up victims in bars… young petite males… police sketch on page four…”

He flipped to page four. Bingo. 

Shooting subtle glances at the man, it was easy to compare him to the police sketch on the paper once, twice, and a third time just to be sure. It was quite spot on, all the way down to the mole on his neck.

He had him.

He should work for New York.

Setting the paper down again, he already knew it wouldn’t be smart to make a scene and start a fight. He needed to lure him away from his intended victim, which would be tough considering he wasn’t anywhere near his ‘type’.

Maybe he could start hitting on the kid and start a fight outside. But, no, he wouldn’t have any proof then.

Before he could think of an on the spot solution, the two of them were already on the move, leaving the bar together, the young man looking incredibly intoxicated and definitely not in a state to consent to anything 

Loki pulled out his phone, quietly calling for backup as he watched the two men stumble out.

“This is detective David Loki, I’m gonna need some backup at the bar on 41st, I’m in pursuit of a suspect on the run from New York, he has left with a young man. I may need to make an arrest.” He tucked the phone back into his pocket without a word, speed walking past the stumbling bodies to reach the door they’d left through.

As soon as the cool night air hit him, he felt his heart fall with disappointment as they were already nowhere to be found. It shouldn’t be an issue though. With one intoxicated man, they couldn’t have gone far.

He took in an annoyed breath, a steady beat bumping in the bass from the bar behind him as he headed to check the alley around the corner. He only made it a few steps however before freezing, hearing a scuffle in the opposite direction. 

His ears perked up, following the sounds to the other side of the building, where scuffles turned to whimpers, then to hoarse ‘stop’s. 

“Let me go I don’t want to do this anymore, please let me go.”

Loki ran to the source of the sounds, a hand on his firearm as he rounded the corner to a barely lit alley. The young man was pinned between the wall and the larger man’s body, squirming with his jeans pulled down to reveal his bare ass.

He pulled the gun from his waistband, levelling it to the man’s head. “Police! Put your hands up and get on the fuckin’ ground!”

The man immediately dropped his victim, whipping around to stare at him like _he_ was the crazy one. “Are you fucking insane?! Put the gun down, someone’s gonna get hurt!” 

Oddly enough, the younger man didn’t run to safety, but rather silently moved behind the larger man, looking more annoyed than afraid as he pulled his pants up and redid his belt.

“Uh…”

Had he been wrong? Were these two just an unconventional couple with odd kinks? He did look like the sketch, but what if he was wrong?

He shook his head. His gut didn’t think it was that simple. There was definitely something off about this guy, and his gut had never been wrong before.

Loki lowered his gun. The man didn’t appear to have a weapon, but he was definitely nervous. 

Before Loki could open his mouth to ask him any questions, the man’s entire body tensed up, face scrunching in discomfort and shock as he fell forward.

There was a crack. He’d definitely broken his nose.

The younger man rolled his eyes with a sigh, pulling a pair of handcuffs from his discarded jacket pocket and snapping them onto the bigger man’s wrists, grumbling the entire time. He shot Loki a glare as the man beneath him whimpered in pain.

“I _had_ him. Then you show up, making him all nervous and shit. What if he had a weapon? I’d be dead by now, asshole, who the hell are you, and do you have a license to carry by the way, sir?”

“Who the hell am I? I’m detective Loki with the Pennsylvania fuckin’ police department, who the hell are _you_?” Loki looked the smaller man up and down as he tightened the cuffs and casually took a seat on the bigger man’s back, evoking a wheeze as he began to regain motor control.

“Officer Parker, NYPD. I got the okay to work out of Pennsylvania for the week to catch this asshole, even though I told them I only needed 2 days max. And look at that, got a score on day 1.”

“New York? We could have handled him, hell I easily identified him in the bar on a whim, why’d they send a kid like you out here anyway?”

Officer Parker hummed, the red and blue lights of police cars as they pulled up lighting his soft features as he spoke. “Well, detective, I just happen to be that good.” He winked. Loki felt his cheeks flush, suddenly thankful for the lighting of the patrol cars. “Also, I’m in his target age range. Well, I look it anyway. Perks of graduating from Rhode Island’s academy. They let you in at 18, so I got a few years under my belt already.”

Loki stood there in half amazement as the police cruiser that pulled up turned their sirens off, two officers stepping out. 

Parker stood up and allowed the man to breathe more freely, coughing as the two officers heaved the heavier man to his feet. “Th-The twink’s a cop?! You said you were 16!”

“Surprise, dickbag, I’m 21, but that didn’t stop you from trying to get in my pants”

Officer Parker flipped him off as he watched the officers shove him into the backseat, thanking Loki for the call, and Parker for the swift arrest as they pulled away. It all happened in a blur, quickly and efficiently.

“Anyway, I gotta get started on the paperwork to extradite him back to New York. Your captain said it wouldn’t be a problem, so it shouldn’t take too long. I’ll get him out of your hair in no time flat.”

Loki didn’t even know where to begin. He’d never been at such a loss before, but here was this Officer Parker, who managed to steal his breath and his words within minutes of meeting him.

They left the gross alley together, stepping under the light of a streetlamp, and Loki finally got a better look at Officer Parker. 

He had brown curls, bigger brown eyes that shone with youth, but a strong jawline that gave away his age. Officer Parker was beautiful, and made his heart skip a beat in a way he’d only ever read about in novels. 

Loki barely even noticed Officer Parker staring right back until their eyes met again, the two of them awkwardly turning away.

“Uh, do you- do you need a ride anywhere?” Loki gestured a thumb over to his car. 

“No, I’m at a motel close by, thanks though.”

And at that, he left without another word.

-

When he drove away, all he could think about was Officer Parker, who came into his life like a whirlwind, and left just as quickly.

When he got home, all he could think about was whether or not he’d catch him filling out the paperwork at the office the next morning.

When he got in bed, all he could think about was clocking in early and staying overtime to try and catch a glimpse of the officer at the station.

And when he closed his eyes, he wondered if he’d ever see the rookie again once his business was done in Nowhere, Pennsylvania.

-

Officer Parker didn’t show up that day.

Or the next.

Or the one after that.

By the fourth day he finally asked if the New York officer had come in at all.

It turned out that officer Parker had come in the night of the arrest to pick up the appropriate paperwork to fill out back at his motel.

Loki went home early.

He had wasted the past four days just sitting on his ass doing nothing, and now his chance at meeting the kid again was probably shot to hell. It was entirely possible that officer Parker had already gone, or was currently on his way back to New York. 

Fuck.

People like Parker were the kinds you never met again if you missed your shot. They had a certain magnetic pull to them, and if you didn’t make a move first, someone else would. He was definitely feeling like he missed his shot. His only real option was to indulge in his go-to comfort food spot, the local Chinese restaurant with the cute waitress that liked to give him discounts.

Sitting down at his usual table, he ordered his usual meal and tried to pretend to get back to his usual life as if nothing had changed.

Why was he still so stuck on the kid? Was there such a thing as normal after meeting someone like Officer Parker? Hell, he’d only had one conversation with him, and Loki was already seeing him in his dreams.

“Are you ready to order?” the waitress asked another patron.

“Uh can I get the stir fried noodles, beef, easy on the oil.”

God damn it all.

Loki ran his hands through his hair, turning to follow the sound of the voice as subtly as he could, and for the second time in his life, his heart skipped a beat.

Officer Parker.

Sat pretty in a booth seat by the window, thanking the waitress as he put his head back down to work on the papers before him.

It took no convincing at all for him to abandon his usual spot without a second thought. Loki strolled over, hands in his pocket. It was like he was drawn to him. Again, magnetic.

“I thought you’d be back in New York by now.” He grinned down at the kid, who nearly jumped out of his skin at the surprise. He appeared to compose himself almost instantly though, looking up with an easy smile as he saw who had approached him.

“Well well well, detective Loki. Mr. Solved Every Case Assigned. It’s good to see you again.”

“Who-”

“Your captain likes to talk about you. You’re apparently very good at your job. It’s not that I don’t trust you, I just wanted a few more days to um, question the dude ‘n stuff.”

Loki tilted his head in confusion. “You don’t have to do that, we can question him while he’s here. No need to put all that extra work on yourself.”

“I know.” Parker’s ears turned an adorable shade of red at the tips as he looked down at his menu. “I was um… hoping to run into you again, actually.” He looked back up, a more confident smile on display. It looked good on him.

"Really? Well, I've been at the office the past few days waiting for you to collect that paperwork."

Officer Parker's eyes went wide. "Are you kidding? I was told you'd be here. I've had nothing but Chinese food all week"

Oh.

They had been searching for one another. Drawn together, both stubbornly unable to meet in the middle. Until now. 

He didn't want to let this slip him again.

“Can I buy you dinner, officer?”

“Just call me Peter. I’ll let you pick up my bill, but only if you sit down and share it with me.”

“Deal.”

-

Peter started meeting him at the station more often, hanging around his desk as his colleagues watched on with amusement. Peter made him smile, and flirted without abandon for the remainder of his allotted week long stay. 

He even took to calling him by his first name, it was a simple David, yet also something the other officers wouldn’t dare touch with a ten foot pole.

After hours, they'd leave together and he’d walk Peter back to his motel. 

Loki never thought he’d be in love. The concept had always been so foreign. It was something out of a fairytale, and definitely not the type of life he thought he’d ever get. Especially not with a fresh faced rookie from New York, but he’d been learning to roll with the punches lately.

When Peter’s week was up, and he had to go back home, Loki wasn’t surprised. He knew it had to happen eventually, nothing that perfect was ever going to last. It didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

He was ready with the knowledge he’d never see Peter again, he knew he had become snappier at the station, and he knew he spent a large portion of his day texting the kid or wallowing in his own misery, but he couldn’t help it. The thought of never seeing Peter again was killing him.

So when he was back a week later, Loki was sure he was seeing things.

As the yellow cab pulled up outside of the precinct, with Peter stepping out, he was already out there on a smoke break. The cigarette fell out of his lips, a shoe crushing it into the ground as he stumbled toward the lot.

“P-Peter?”

The kid looked out of breath, a suitcase in each hand, his hair a mess and his face a cheeky pink. 

“Hi.”

“What- what’re you doing here?”

“I transferred,”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.” He laughed.

“We don’t actually get cases like the rapist guy often, that was like, a total fluke. It’s gonna get pretty boring, and we definitely don’t have as much crime as NY, and-”

“I know.”

“Then-”

“But NY doesn’t have you.”

He was unable to stop the smile from forming on his face. Falling in love, it turned out, was a continuous process.

“Can I buy you dinner?”

-

They lived together for a year. Peter moved into his apartment, and later, they bought a house. It was quiet for a long time, not a lot of need for a detective in their small town, but Peter kept busy with petty crimes.

Living in the suburbs was much simpler than either of them could have thought

Loki liked to tend the garden and cook, and Peter liked to work in the garage. Loki loved Peter’s bouncy curls, and bouncier personality, and Peter liked to trace Loki’s tattoos and embarrass him in the office. He liked to shave Loki’s hair, and Loki liked to sweep him off his feet.

They danced in the living room every time Peter’s favorite song came on the radio, and Loki almost got down on one knee when Peter spilled wine on their new rug from laughing so hard. 

It was tender, and domestic in all the ways neither of them ever thought they would get, and in Loki’s eyes, for the first time, Peter made Nowhere, Pennsylvania feel like Somewhere.

But then the girls went missing.

And then Peter disappeared too. 

He was losing his mind. He didn’t know what he’d do if he lost Peter. He didn't know what he was doing _now._ It felt like he was sitting on his thumbs doing jack shit while the only love of his life went missing. It made him wish he hadn’t taken their quiet life for granted so often. Made him wish he’d proposed when he could’ve.

-

“I’m Detective Loki, I’m here to ask you a few questions about Barry.”

Holly Jones let him in without question, hobbling in and gesturing to the sitting area where she sat and sighed. He couldn’t take his mind off of Peter. Where the hell had he gone? He had left a note on the fridge, like he always did, stating that he would be pursuing a lead that night and not to wait up before bed. 

And he never came home.

Peter could be in danger, hell he could need help right now, and yet he was sitting there questioning Holly Jones about a damn trailer.

“-he parks it out front sometimes. Barry’s a good kid, detective. He would never have done anything like that to those girls. I swear.”

Right, the girls.

“You don’t mind if I take a look around then do you?”

Holly shrugged, and let him wander the halls, peering into the open rooms. He knew he should be more focused on finding the girls, doing a deeper search, maybe opening every door, but his mind kept returning to that note, held up on their fridge with the dumb spider magnet Peter had bought as a prank the year before. Besides, what was the likelihood that the old woman with a limp had kidnapped two energetic little girls with ease? 

_Got a lead on missing girls. Don’t stay up and wait for me. See you in the morning, love you tons <33 -Peter_

“Detective?”

“Huh?” 

“I asked if you were alright.”

He paused, a hand on the closed door. as he shook his thoughts aside. “I’m fine. Sorry for intruding. I’ll keep you updated as soon as Barry’s all done being processed along. Thank you for your time.”

Holly walked him out of the house, waving him out, and he got back into his car.

_Love you tons._

Where the hell was he?

-

The rest of the day followed more or less of the same pattern. Anna’s father demanded that Barry be locked up. There was some screaming involved. It wasn’t great, but he barely paid attention to any of it. The entire time he worked the girls case, he worked on finding Peter as well. If he had truly gotten a great lead on the girls, then wherever the girls were, Peter had to be there too.

Otherwise… otherwise Peter would have been home come morning.

But he wasn’t.

His only lead was Peter’s lead. Find the girls.

It was at the very end of his day. Right before the end of his shift in fact, when the girls turned up at the station, talking about Holly Jones and _Peter_. 

Loki was in his car before anyone could stop him. Not that anyone could have. The only thing racing through his mind was the one fact, over and over.

He was there.

 _He was there_.

And he was. Holly Jones house. In the very room he had almost opened, Holly Jones kneeled over his love’s limp body. And when he asked for her compliance, she shot him in the shoulder. He shot her in the head.

Peter was unresponsive. She had injected him with god knows what and he was barely breathing.

If it was possible to go back in time, he would have given Holly Jones a slower death. And if it wasn’t the stray bullet wound that killed him, it’d be the guilt.

If he’d just done a thorough search of the home, if he’d asked the right questions, if he’d done his job properly, maybe Peter would have been in the passenger seat, turning up the volume on the FM radio instead of foaming at the mouth and fighting for his life.

He could barely pay attention to the damn road, and _no one_ was responding to his calld for backup. Peter was delirious, barely conscious, and sobbing. Sobbing like he’s never seen before. It was unsettling to see the usually-composed Officer Parker uncontrollably crying. 

“Quentin. I miss you. I’m so sick of seeing all these fucking fakes. I’m so tired of these people who look just like you, but they’re fucking not. I wanna go home.”

Who the fuck was Quentin?

“As soon as we get you to a hospital, I’m gonna take you home. I’m gonna take you home and cuddle you stupid, and make sure nothing bad ever happens to you ever again, you hear me?”

Peter threw up, and Loki was sure that was the end. He was sure he was about to lose him, and could do nothing but drive and comfort him, a string of unending I love you’s as he pleaded for him to stay awake.

He didn’t even bother properly parking in his rush to get Peter into the hospital.

The first night in, he wasn’t even sure Peter was going to make it. He distinctly remembered yelling at the medical staff, who told him Peter only had hours left. He remembered he had to be restrained by his coworkers, _their_ coworkers, and put in cuffs as they tended to his shoulder wound.

They didn’t dare pull him away from Peter’s bedside.

-

Miraculously, he lived.

"Hey, baby." He carded his hands through his lovers hair, smoothing out all the knots and tangles and matts from the sweat. "You're up."

"I'm up."

"What happened, hon?" He ran his nails over Peter’s scalp the way he knew he liked it. Preferably, he didn't want to do all the questioning now, but it had to happen at some point, and Loki would rather it be him than any other officer.

"I dunno. I remember the lead… how much Alex Jones resembled Barry. You know the kid that went missing ages ago? The cold case?"

"Yeah, baby."

"So I did the thing- y'know the thing… from New York. Where they had me dress like a teen to lure out suspects? I did that to pursue Holly. Just to see if she'd bite you know? Told her I was a uh-" Peter clenched his eyes shut, snapping his fingers as he tried to remember, "hitchhiking. Ran away from my parents. I think she hit me with something. Um, I don’t remember, actually but I blacked out, and the next thing I know I'm here. I'm sorry I couldn't do it, David, I- I wanted to solve the case, but- but I just made it worse, and those girls…"

"Wait what? You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

Loki wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or a curse yet that Peter didn’t remember his kidnapping. He ran through the standard questioning line for potential amnesiacs, but the rest of his memory was intact. He knew his name, his address, his job, the details of said job, and anything else of relevance.

It was like there was a day long gap in his memory, which only brought on more questions than answers, really. Like, he wanted to ask Peter why he’d called him by another man’s name back then, when he was on the verge of death and delirious. He wanted to know who Quentin was, and why he was important enough to nearly be the last name on his lovers lips.

Perhaps that was a conversation better suited for when Peter was all better.

“Those girls said you’re a hero, Peter. You are a hero. Alex, well, Barry is being reintroduced to his mother. What you did saved more than just those girls lives.” Loki held onto Peter's hand, placing a kiss on each knuckle.

“I don’t feel like a hero.”

“No? How do you feel, baby?”

“Tired.”

The doctors said that Peter had a mild case of amnesia, probably from the blunt force trauma to the side of his head, but that he would be alright. The one thing they did mention was odd however, was the amount of cyanide he had been injected with should have been enough to kill him twice. They ran the blood tests twice, but it was already out of his system, and he was on track to a full recovery.

With no other options, all they could do was count their lucky stars that Peter had somehow managed to defy death in such a fashion.

In fact, he was let out of the hospital the following week with no further injuries. The girls had come to visit him and bring him gifts and flowers, and Peter, sweetheart that he was, was more than happy to talk with them for hours. 

Loki found it near impossible to leave his boyfriend’s bedside that week, and no one tried to stop him. He had a lot of time to think about their lives, and the almost abrupt end to Peters. It made him think on their limited time in their little town that they had managed to make into somewhere they could call home.

As he helped Peter into the passenger seat of his car to take him home, their hands intertwined, and Peter already running his mouth on the idea of getting a big fluffy dog, Loki had nothing left to feel but relief.

Things were going to be okay.


End file.
